Senate Republicans on Wednesday spurned Democrats’ first effort to intervene in a lawsuit that, if upheld, would kill off Obamacare.
Democrats wanted every senator to agree to a resolution that says Congress never intended to scrap the rest of the Affordable Care Act when it zeroed out the individual mandate for shirking insurance as part of the GOP tax bill.
A federal judge late Friday sided with GOP state attorneys general who say the mandate and the law’s goodies run together, so the whole law should fail — including its protections for people with pre-existing conditions.
“We need to make very clear — congressional intent is the current law [and] that pre-existing conditions and other coverage is not to be taken away by a court,” said Sen. Patty Murray, Washington Democrat.
Yet Sen. John Barrasso, Wyoming Republican, killed the effort by objecting to a request for unanimous consent to the resolution.
He said the resolution is unnecessary because Obamacare will remain the law of the land during the appeals process, which could land before the Supreme Court.
“Regardless of what happens in this legal process, our commitment has always been to protect people with pre-existing conditions,” said Mr. Barrasso, who reiterated his belief the Democrats’ health law is failing.
Sen. Joe Manchin III, West Virginia Democrat who authored the resolution, made his disappointment clear, saying a large number of his constituents have pre-existing conditions and risk losing coverage because of the lawsuit.
The request was the first Capitol Hill tussle over U.S. District Court Judge Reed O’Connor’s ruling out of Texas.
Democrats say Republicans, who pledged during the midterm campaign to protect people with pre-existing conditions, need to prove they are serious after failing to pass an alternative.
“They will have to decide whether the rhetoric that they have been saying matches what they are going to do here,” Mrs. Murray said.
It’s unclear what Democrats will do next. They simply pledged to “keep fighting.”
House Democrats who will retake the majority in January say a vote to intervene in the lawsuit will be among their first actions, though Senate Republicans who added to their majority in November are unlikely to replicate those efforts.
Some pundits have suggested the legal threat to Obamacare will embolden Democrats to go beyond the 2010 law and pursue far-reaching reforms, including a government-run, single-payer system.
Mr. Manchin said he’s focused on protecting and shoring up Obamacare.
“We can fix what we have in front of us,” said Mr. Manchin, who won re-election in Trump country this year by fighting to preserve the law’s consumer protections.
He plans to reach out to President Trump in search of a deal to stabilize the Obamacare markets.
Democrats walked away from market-stabilization bill earlier this year, citing pro-life language that went beyond the status quo.
In the following months, Democrats excoriated the GOP for its failure to come up with the better plan they’d promised for eight years.
It worked, as House Democrats flipped 40 seats and mitigated Senate losses in the face of a tough electoral map that ran through Trump country.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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